The Iowa Central Community College Board of Directors voted unanimously Tuesday to return to a per-credit hour tuition rate to begin in the fall of 2022.

Iowa Central President Jesse Ulrich recommended that the board discontinue the flat-rate tuition structure which was implemented in fall of 2019.

“The rationale for this recommendation includes the unsustainable loss of revenue, the implementation of Last Dollar Scholar which benefits students in the Career and Technical Education field taking the most credits, and the need for the college to balance affordable tuition with sustainable supports for our students,” said Ulrich.

The flat-rate tuition provided one fixed rate for students taking 12 to 18 credit hours. According to Ulrich, the break-even for the college was 14.5 credits, implying that students taking less than 14.5 credits would be paying more per credit hour and those taking more than 14.5 credit hours would be paying less, offering a bundle-type incentive. The hope of this concept was to increase enrollment.

“Part of leadership’s responsibility when we do an initiative is to evaluate it over time and then make a decision on whether or not we continue that,” said Ulrich.

Board President Mark Crimmins said, “It was something different and we wanted to try it. We thought it might help our students, which it did, but it didn’t necessarily help all of them.”

Ulrich said over the past 2.5 years and adding in the projection for the second semester of 2021-2022, Iowa Central lost about $1 million in revenue due to the flat-rate tuition.

“For me, that was a really tough pill to swallow in regard to when I look at all the needs of our institution to help serve our students better,” said Ulrich.

Ulrich also said students who didn’t need a higher number of credit hours per semester found it more cost effective to enroll in a college without the flat-rate tuition.

In addition, Ulrich said the majority of students taking the most credits per semester are enrolled in the Career and Technical Education field and many of those same students are already receiving the Last-Dollar Scholarship which is intended to cover any remaining gap between federal and state grants and scholarships and tuition and qualified fees.

“I commend the college for trying to do something different. We need to make sure that we look at different ways of doing things so that we’re not stale. We want to make sure we are doing things that are good for our students and good for the institution,” said Ulrich.

Per credit hour rates and fees will be determined in the spring.